Racecars and Understanding
by dwparsnip
Summary: Tag to 'The Prodigal'. Just a little addition to the episode, complete with a little McKeller goodness.


Well, this is my attempt to get back into the SGA fanfiction saddle. It's been a while, time and inspiration having abandoned me, so it seems. Hopefully the inspiration part is back at any rate.

This is a tag to 'The Prodigal', so spoiler warnings for that episode. It was written before the events of 'Brainstorm', but I wouldn't necessarily say it couldn't have happened.

A million thanks to nodoubtfan for looking this over for me…you're the best.

Naturally, I don't own Stargate Atlantis or any of its characters. I think MGM does.

Any thoughts would be most welcomed.

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'Zelenka to McKay.'

"Did it work?" demanded Rodney with an anxiousness that should have been reserved for a father who had been banished from the delivery room moments before the birth of his first child. He hadn't been banished from the delivery room naturally, but he certainly felt banished nonetheless, hovering as he was fifty meters off Atlantis' Control Tower in a less than fully functional Puddle Jumper.

'Yes,' replied Radek with a sigh of relief that matched the sentiment behind Rodney's own sigh. 'The vortex destroyed enough of Michael's Jumper to disrupt control of the city's power supply and the power flow to the stun bubble…'

McKay rolled his eyes at the phrase but valiantly remained silent as Zelenka went on.

'… surrounding the Control Room and Colonel Sheppard's team successfully retook the gate room.'

Rodney nodded in acknowledgement, oblivious to the fact that there was no way that Zelenka could see it. "Good," he said with his usual arrogant confidence, not at all letting on that he was in no way certain that the plan would work. He squirmed in his seat for a second, the burning desire he had to ask Radek if Jennifer was okay warring with his intense want not to broadcast his feelings to anyone.

As it turned out, the war was for naught.

'They took Mr. Woolsey and Ronon to the Infirmary. Dr. Keller has already called to say that they both will be fine with some time.'

Rodney slumped in his seat, relief draining him for a moment of the strength to sit upright. After a moment he managed to sit up and said, "Let me talk to Sheppard."

Radek hesitated and then said with a meaningful slowness, 'He's not here.'

And Rodney didn't miss it. "Where is he? Is he all right? What happened? What the hell went…"

'Allow me to explain!' interrupted the frustrated Czech. When Rodney fell silent he said, 'Michael escaped the initial assault and went on the run towards the Jumper bay and Colonel Sheppard went after him. The last I heard from him was an order to close the Jumper bay doors, which I did. That was several minutes ago and I have not been able to reach him on the radio or the city comm. system.'

Rodney thought the Jumper's comm. system 'on' and said, "McKay to Sheppard." He waited for a heartbeat and tried again. "Dr. McKay to Colonel Sheppard." He paused again to wait for a response, and when none was forthcoming he yelled, "Damn it Sheppard! If you don't answer me…"

'You'll do what?' responded Sheppard.

Rodney heard the amusement in his friend's voice but he heard something else as well, something that he'd heard far too often for his or Sheppard's good.

Sheppard had the crap kicked out of him by a stronger than the average human being.

Again.

"Well you answered me so it doesn't matter does it?" replied Rodney sourly. "What happened?"

There was a brief static filled pause before Sheppard's voice filtered through the speakers. 'Michael's dead.'

Shock, excitement and relief washed through Rodney to the point where his right hand flew away from the controls and formed a triumphant fist in the air, that is until the Jumper, no longer under complete control of its pilot, veered slightly to the right. Rodney slammed his hand back down to the controls, excitedly saying, "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" as he righted the ship.

'You okay, Rodney?' asked Sheppard with alarm in his voice.

"Fine," was Rodney's clipped reply. He coughed to clear the panic induced lump in his throat and repeated more calmly, "Fine. What happened?"

'Later,' said Sheppard meaningfully and Rodney's brow creased in question. 'Where are you?'

"I'm still in the Jumper," replied Rodney as though it should have been obvious to the Colonel.

'You're still in the Jumper?' asked Sheppard disbelievingly.

"Yes I'm still in the Jumper," replied Rodney.

'The Jumper from the underwater bay?'

Rodney unceremoniously rolled his eyes. "Of course not, Sheppard. With all the spare time I had I landed that Jumper and got another one. Of course the Jumper from the underwater bay!"

'So you're in the same Jumper that you fixed on the fly not too long ago, complaining the whole time that you weren't sure that it was even possible to fix?'

As if to emphasize the Colonel's point, a warning indicator began flashing on the screen that suddenly appeared in front of Rodney's face.

"Crap!" he exclaimed loudly. He already had the Jumper flying towards the main Jumper bay before saying to Sheppard, "I've got to land this thing."

'Good idea,' said Sheppard with a mixture of concern and amusement. 'I'll see you in a little while. Sheppard out.'

A second warning light joined the first on the screen and Rodney said out loud even though Sheppard had signed off, "I hope so."

"McKay to Zelenka. Open the main Jumper bay doors."

To Radek's credit his response was nearly instantaneous. 'Opening bay doors.'

"Oh come on!" he exclaimed as a third warning light began flashing and McKay promised to himself that if he managed to land the Jumper he would never put off repairing anything ever again.

The doors were open by the time he maneuvered the ship into position, and he lowered the Jumper down into the bay as quickly as he was able.

He would never admit it to anyone in a million years, especially not Sheppard, but he didn't have much time to spare. He just felt the jolt of the craft hitting the deck when the inertial dampeners failed, followed in short order by a system wide power failure.

_How do I let him talk me into these things?_ Rodney asked himself as he exited the stricken ship, conveniently forgetting that it was, after all, his plan.

He walked to out into the main corridor and broke into a jog towards the lab. By the time he reached the lab, he was sweating to the point where once again his shirt was sticking to him. He walked up to where Zelenka was sitting and bent over enough to rest his hands on his knees.

Radek, fearing that Rodney was going to pass out, looked at him and said, "Would you like to sit…"

Rodney waved him off and stood up, vainly attempting as he did so to slow his breathing. He motioned to the computer in front of Radek and said between pants, "Show me…what you've…got."

It only took Rodney a couple of minutes to get caught up to speed by Radek. His breathing however, as a testament to his need to **really** get into shape, took those couple of minutes plus a couple more to fall into its usual rhythm. "Make sure we've got all of Michael's code out of the mainframe and all the systems," Rodney said as he took a last look at the diagnostic running on Radek's laptop. By the time he had actually gotten the lab Radek was well on his way to repairing the damage done by Michael and his minions.

"I will, Rodney," replied Radek as he fixed his slightly wayward spectacles. "Most of the interference and trouble was tied into Michael's Jumper, and their access to the systems in the Control Room was simply to activate the self-destruct and secure the Control Room."

Rodney nodded in agreement, already ahead of Zelenka. "And if they were intent on destroying Atlantis then it's unlikely that they planted any hidden commands or viruses that could make life difficult for us later."

Radek agreed with a nod and McKay turned and began walking towards the door. "Check anyway," he said over his shoulder.

"I will, yes," said Radek as he bent down to examine the diagnostic. He straightened up suddenly as it dawned on him that Rodney was leaving and asked to Rodney's back, "Where are you going?"

Rodney stopped and turned to face Radek who was, he was sorry to see, regarding him with his eyebrows raised in amusement. "The Infirmary," he replied with a jerk of his thumb in the direction of the hallway. He rolled his eyes and sighed for effect and said in the condescending tone of voice he used whenever he thought someone was way off base, "That's where Sheppard is, isn't it?"

"Ah, I see," said Radek, the smile on his face telling Rodney he didn't believe it for a second. "You are going to see Colonel Sheppard."

Rodney glanced nervously around to see if anyone else could see him sweating, which by now had nothing to do with physical exertion. "Of course I am." He hesitated for a moment before saying, "Who else would I be going to see?"

Radek turned back to his computer, though Rodney could easily see the smirk on his friend's face.

"No one, I suppose." He put his elbow on the table and rested his chin in his hand. "I will keep an eye on this."

Rodney was tempted to say something else, but decided against it and walked out the door, muttering unflatteringly under his breath about know-it-all friends as he walked to the Infirmary.

When he walked into the Infirmary he stopped to take a look around, his hands gesturing nervously at his sides as his eyes scanned the room. It only took a couple of seconds to find her, standing next to a bed farther into the Infirmary. She was examining Torren, who appeared to him to be perfectly fine. He most likely was, as Teyla and Jennifer were both smiling at the little boy, but no doubt Jennifer wanted to make sure.

Teyla turned towards him and caught his eye. Her gaze intensified for a split second, then softened as she nodded at him as he'd seen her do many times before when she was sincerely thanking someone. He nodded back at her and shifted nervously when his line of sight drifted a couple of degrees back to Jennifer only to realize that she was staring at him.

Seeing that she was uninjured with his own eyes gave him a sense of relief on a scale that he hadn't felt before. And that relief, as deep as it ran within him and as profound as it was, kept him from noticing that his right hand had defied orders to remain still and lifted to wave at her. It wasn't until she smiled brightly and waved back at him that he turned his head enough to notice his wayward hand. He quickly lowered it back to his side and looked back to Jennifer, whose smile didn't waver.

He stood there, his eyes unable to move from the sight of the beautiful woman smiling at him so warmly, so blatantly that even he could see that she didn't care who saw her.

That was when he started to smile back at her, and to his surprise he didn't give a damn who saw him. He wouldn't even care if…

"What are you smiling at?"

Rodney tore his gaze away from Jennifer and studied he who dared to interrupt him at such a time. Sheppard didn't look as bad as he sounded on the radio, though that had been a little while ago. The only really visible sign of trouble for the Colonel besides his extremely tired looking eyes was the cut on his right cheek.

"I wasn't smiling," snapped Rodney defensively. He rapidly pointed to Sheppard's head and asked, "How many blows to the head did you take anyway?"

Sheppard gave a sidelong glance towards Teyla and Jennifer, and when he focused back on Rodney there was a half smirk on his face. "Not enough to make me miss what just happened."

Rodney quickly evaluated the situation and found but one way out of it. He edged closer to Sheppard and whispered, "What happened up there?"

All amusement fled from Sheppard's face, and his voice was equally serious when he said softly, "Michael died."

"I got that…" Rodney said more loudly than he wanted to. He stopped and reset his voice to an appropriately clandestine level. "I got that, Sheppard. What happened?"

Sheppard leaned in closer and whispered, "I followed Michael up onto the tower. We went at it pretty good, but he got the better of me." He paused and made sure that no one was close enough to listen to him before continuing. "I was almost out of it and he was about to hit me again, but Teyla stopped him."

Rodney's head instinctively turned towards his team mate at the other end of the Infirmary, still smiling and talking with Jennifer. When he turned back to look at Sheppard, he found the Colonel looking at him intently.

"And then he fell off the balcony," Sheppard stated with all the excitement that one would expect from a man reciting an obscure regulation that no one cared about, instead of telling about the demise of one of their most dangerous enemies.

Rodney was about to demand more details when Sheppard turned his head towards Teyla and watched her play with Torren. Rodney had become more adept than anyone realized at reading Sheppard. He had no choice really. He'd spent more time with Sheppard than anyone else in Atlantis for crying out loud. So when he noticed Sheppard's set jaw and sorrowful eyes, he knew there was more to it. Much more.

He could see the scene in his mind's eye: Sheppard and Michael fought hand-to-hand on the top of a tower; Michael managed to wind Sheppard and pressed his attack, rearing his fist back again to strike the dazed Colonel, but he couldn't do it. Teyla had grabbed his arm in a steely grip that surprised Michael, by its strength and its unexpectedness.

From the look in Sheppard's eyes there was more. Rodney tried to place the look, remember if he'd seen it before, and he had. He'd seen that look before when he or someone else had done something that Sheppard hadn't thought possible, that he hadn't believed they were capable of doing.

And then Rodney understood and his mind's eye finished the incomplete scene. Teyla hit Michael and he fell off the tower. McKay could see Michael clinging to the ledge, and knowing his fixation on Teyla, Rodney could hear him call her name. He could see Teyla, anger and fear mixed in her eyes, looking down at him as she made her decision. She tapped his hand with her foot, knocking his hand off the ledge, and then, a moment later she did the same with his other hand, sending the person who had terrorized her and threatened the most important person in her life, her son, falling to his death.

Rodney's eyes widened with the realization and his head turned once again so that he could regard his Athosian friend. Jennifer said something to her and she smiled at whatever it was.

"He just fell off?" asked Rodney, though his voice was full of understanding and support for what she did and what Sheppard was trying to do.

Rodney turned to look at Sheppard. Sheppard turned as well and slowly nodded his head. "That's how I remember it."

"Yes, well," said Rodney quietly, "that's good enough for me then."

Sheppard gave Rodney an appreciative half smile and was about to add something but a voice interrupted him.

"Ready to go, Colonel?"

Rodney turned to watch Jennifer approach them, a small smile of understanding and sympathy upon her lips. Her eyes were focused on Sheppard until she glanced towards him for a moment.

"Yeah, Doc," replied Sheppard as he stood up from the edge of the bed he'd been leaning against. "No offence, but there are things I need to do."

"I bet there are," said Jennifer as she retrieved his chart from the bed. As she wrote in it she said, "Just take it easy for a few hours." She finished her notations and looked up at him. "You don't have a concussion but you still took more punishment than you should have."

"Is that your way of saying I need to brush up on my self-defense skills, Doc?" Sheppard replied with his usual charm.

"Very funny, Colonel," said Jennifer in a voice that said she was anything but amused. "You know what I meant."

Sheppard had the good grace to look embarrassed and nodded. "Yes I do." He tapped Rodney on the arm and said, "Rodney and I have to make sure that everything is secure then I'm going to go to bed for a while."

Jennifer narrowed her eyes dubiously at him and said, "Right. I'll believe that when I see it."

Sheppard merely smiled at the doctor before looking at Rodney and saying, "Let's go, Rodney."

Rodney hesitated, then managed to give Jennifer a half-hearted smile before turning to follow Sheppard. He'd only taken a step when he whirled around and said, "Jennifer?"

"Yes, Rodney," said Jennifer, who hadn't moved a muscle and was still facing him.

Rodney took a step back towards her, and his hands motioned uneasily as he said, "I'm glad that- that you're okay, that Michael and his goons didn't, you know, make you not okay." He stopped and screwed up his nose at the idiocy of the words he'd just manage to utter and tried again. "I'm very glad that you're okay. I was worried- about you, I mean, that maybe you weren't okay." His eyes opened slightly as he added quickly, "Not that you can't take care of yourself or anything. I mean Ronon told me about what happened when Todd took over the Daedalus and all that. So I suppose that I really shouldn't worry, but I do, I mean I did, that's not to say that I don't worry about you all the time because…" He took a breath and looked into Jennifer's eyes. "I really hope you understand what I'm saying."

Jennifer smiled at him, though Rodney thought it was more of a smirk than a smile. She stepped closer to him and raised her hand to gently rest against his cheek. "Maybe even more than you do, Rodney." Her thumb grazed his cheek several times in rapid succession before she said, "I was worried about you, too."

"Dr. Keller," called one of the nurses. "That scan is ready for you."

Jennifer lowered her hand and said apologetically, "I have to go. We'll talk later?"

"Yes, later. Talk later." Rodney managed to snap himself out of it and said more resolutely, "We'll talk later, yes."

Jennifer nodded at him and reached over to give his hand a tender squeeze before moving off to study the scan she had been summoned to look at.

As she walked away, Rodney couldn't help but smile at her retreating form. He stayed like it for another minute before deciding that it was time to go and find Sheppard. He was just about to turn around to do just that when Sheppard's laughing voice said, "If you keep smiling like that people are going to think you're going soft."

"I wasn't smiling," grated Rodney as he turned around. He walked swiftly past his friend as he said, "Are you coming or not?"

Sheppard ran to catch up with him and said, "Yes I am." They walked on for a silent minute when he asked, "Rodney?" Rodney grunted in acknowledgement and Sheppard said, "Where the hell did we leave those cars?"

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_I still can't believe Michael is gone,_ thought Rodney as he made his way back to his quarters. The day had gone rather smoothly compared to Michael's assault induced panic of the night before. After leaving the Infirmary with John they ensured that all of Michael's hybrids had been accounted for and that Atlantis' security was intact.

After hours of exhaustive searching, he and Radek had managed to verify what they both suspected: Michael's intention of destroying the city meant that he hadn't bothered to try to manipulate any systems other than those associated with his plan. No viruses were detected, no new programming installed- nothing.

And to top it all off, he'd managed to kick Sheppard's ass in their little race in spite of the Colonel's poor attempt at cheating. The way Torren laughed at Sheppard's scowling face and Teyla's completely unsuccessful attempts to hide her smile only served to darken Sheppard's mood further.

And the more unhappy Sheppard became the more glee Rodney felt at the situation, a situation that he would take some pride in and use to irritate Sheppard for some time to come.

He turned the race car he was carrying in his hands over to inspect the undercarriage as he walked along the corridor. There were several ways he could make the car faster: supe up the motor, increase tire traction and so on. It never once occurred to him that it was unethical to supe up a toy race car in an attempt to beat a United States Air Force Colonel, especially when said Colonel would stoop so low as to start racing on 'two' instead of 'three'.

The gloves were off.

He slowly came to a halt and looked around. He had no idea why he'd stopped, for his quarters were still several corridors away, but he seemed to know this area better than he thought. He turned around and kept turning until he'd made a full revolution and ended up facing in his original direction, yet he still had no idea why he'd stopped.

He turned to his left and found a plain wall with no doors near his position. Then he turned to his right, where there was a door with a standard locking mechanism that was found on the side of all crew quarters. His curiosity overwhelmed him and Rodney turned completely toward the door. He shook his head, dismissing out of hand the idea of knocking or otherwise intruding on whoever's quarters it was, even if there was a part of him that wanted to. He was about to turn around and wander on his way when he was frozen in his tracks by a familiar voice off to his right speaking his name.

And the second he heard her voice he realized exactly where it was that he was standing, and why it seemed so hauntingly familiar. How many times had he passed by her door in the past number of weeks and wondered what she was doing and how she was feeling? How many times had he wanted to actually pass his hand over the sensor to that particular door to find out?

Far too many to be deemed healthy by any psychiatrist worth his or her salt.

He clutched his remote control car more tightly in his hands and turned towards her, the motion slow and deliberate lest he inadvertently do something unfortunate like drop the car or trip over his own feet and go crashing to the deck. On the other hand, he knew that the probability was extremely high that if he were to embarrass himself his mouth would be the instrument used to do it.

When he was finally facing her he said by way of greeting, "Dr. Jennifer." He realized his gaffe and immediately corrected himself. "Keller, I mean. Of course I know your name is Keller. Jennifer Keller. Dr. Jennifer Keller. That's it. Your name."

Rodney watched as Jennifer folded her hands together in front of her and looked at him much the way a teacher would look at one of her less successful students: with a patient, kind and gentle smile. "Of course you know that's your name," Rodney managed without letting his voice crack in horror. "I just…I mean to say," his shoulders slumped and he added meekly, "Hello."

When he was home he was going to have a long talk with his mouth.

"Hello, Rodney," she replied with the serenity of an angel. She walked a couple of steps toward him and passed her hand over the sensor to her door causing it to silently slide open. He had turned enough to follow her progress so that when she looked at him she managed to catch his eyes. "Would you like to come in?"

Warning lights and sirens blared in Rodney's mind. On the one hand that was exactly what he wanted to do, but the part of him that worried only moments before that his mouth would get him into trouble, and apparently rightly so, told him to run away.

"You said we'd talk later," said Jennifer as though she knew exactly what it was he was thinking, and perhaps she did. Her voice took on a somber and subdued tone as she added, "And after the day I had, I would really like that."

The hands that had been clutching so hard onto the car relaxed and Rodney became lost in the brown eyes that were looking at him so beseechingly. Before he knew what he was doing, he nodded and followed her inside her quarters, thinking as he did so that it was amazing just how right walking into her quarters felt to him.


End file.
